‘This has got to stop’: Hundreds march in downtown Columbus to protest police brutality

Over 200 people marched along the sidewalks of Broadway in downtown Columbus Sunday afternoon, holding signs, beating drums and chanting “I can’t breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” as a police escort kept the streets clear for them to cross.

With the peaceful protest by the group, called “No Justice, No Peace,” Columbus joined the scores of other cities in America where protests have cropped up in recent days after the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed May 25 by a white Minneapolis police officer.

The group, mostly comprised of young black and white people, gathered outside the RiverCenter parking garage shortly after noon and dispersed around 3 p.m. The protesters marched down one side of Broadway, turned on 12th Street and marched back, shouting and waving to bystanders.

As people walked along the sidewalk or dined outside at restaurants, they filmed the protesters on their phones or chanted back “Black Lives Matter.” Cars honked as they passed and some employees of Broadway businesses stepped outside to show their support, like Crystal Chance at Salt Life.

“(The protest) is very important because someone lost their life and it didn’t have to happen...someone thinking they can just get away with something that isn’t right. It’s just really sad,” Chance said.

The organizer of the protest, Skylar McMeans, 21, said she grew up in Columbus and sees racism as a big issue in the city. The group came together on Facebook, and McMeans said the purpose is to protest police brutality and the “injustice of the system.”

“It’s so screwed up and we think we need a change,” she said. “Our protest specifically we’re trying to keep it as peaceful as possible, we’re just here to speak out against injustice. We don’t want the violence.”

Tacara Hemingway said she saw flyers for Sunday’s protest and is also organizing another one at 10 a.m. June 6 on Macon Road. The march will start at the old Rite Aid at the corner of Henry Avenue and Wynnton Road end at the City Services Center.

The mayor, police chief and others will be speaking and answering questions about preventing a similar incident to the one that led to Floyd’s death, she said.

Hemingway said racism hasn’t ever gone anywhere, it’s just more visible now with phones and social media.

“This has got to stop,” she said. “Our voices need to be heard. I agree that all lives matter, but how can all lives matter if black lives don’t matter? We don’t feel like everybody hates black people, but I hate that racism even exists today.”

During the march, Police Chief Ricky Boren trailed behind the protesters, and Mayor Skip Henderson and Sheriff Donna Tompkins were nearby as well.

“I talked with the organizers and just asked them what their intentions are here today, I told them what we expected from them and that’s basically just the fact that they remain orderly, there’s no destruction, there’s no damage,” Boren said. “We are totally neutral in this and we respect their first amendment rights and their right to demonstrate respectfully.”

Henderson said the city supports peaceful protest and that the police were there to protect the protesters from anyone who may want to do something “destructive” that pushes their message to the background.

“We need to focus on the message,” he said. “The message is that they’re angry. I’m angry. Anybody that saw the life squeezed out of that man in the city street should be. This is the way things change, this is the way you begin to initiate communication and I’m here really just to kind of support that.”

After the walk down Broadway, the protesters gathered back in front of the RiverCenter parking garage, taking turns speaking about their experiences with racism in America and how to be a white ally.

“I’m 23 years old y’all. I want to think about having kids, I want to think about falling in love...I want to graduate from school,” a black male protester shouted into a megaphone. “But no, I walk around with my life on the line with a target on my back all g-----n day. It makes no sense.”

Group later arrested

After the protest ended, some participants regrouped and marched from Broadway up 13th Street to Veterans Parkway, blocking traffic, authorities said.

More than 22 people were arrested for failing to disperse, Boren said Sunday evening.

The charge is a misdemeanor. Though those arrested will have a Recorder’s Court hearing set for 9 a.m. Tuesday, they should be able to bond out of jail and waive that, the chief said.

“It was people from the earlier protest,” Boren said. They were chanting some of the same slogans from the earlier demonstration, such as “Don’t shoot” and “I can’t breathe,” he said.

Patrol officers said the protesters impeded traffic from 13th Street south to 12th Street, along the parkway. Police had some lanes blocked there at 4 p.m., soon after they cleared the intersections.

Boren said his staff had prepared for a possible disturbance, but would not say how many officers were called in to work Sunday. Motorcycle officers remained posted at Broadway intersections Sunday evening.

“We will have increased patrols in that area through the night,” Boren said.

He said another protest is planned for 4 p.m. Monday, with the rallying point at the Walmart on Victory Drive.

This story was originally published May 31, 2020 at 3:12 PM.